Hmmm

Really liked Sixth Sense
Simply love Unbreakable - his best film IMHO
Really liked Signs
Lots to like in The Village

and then....

His issue is ego. It just has to be hard when you're on the roll he was on. I've been involved with these people and they are being told how awesome they are 28 hours a day. very hard to remain objective. My guess is that he thinks hs can take average material and sprinkle magic dust on it.

Anyway, he's no one hit wonder

Rob

John Singelton - Boyz n the Hood. It might not be a masterpiece but I still consider it a fine film and I really don't think he ever managed anything above mediocre (Baby Boy came close) since. Though I have a feeling Vexer will have many positive things to say about Shaft (not a slight on your taste in film mate - we all like different things).

Fair enough Robert. Withdrawn.

"Sixth Sense" was a great movie. "Unbreakable" was one of my favorites. "Signs" held tension early on in a way that very few do. It however left me feeling a tad bludgeoned at the end as the foreshadowing had all come to pass, but in such a way that even the short attention span audience couldn't miss it.

I hope M. Night will be back.

I'll weigh in and say I enjoyed Swordfish. Mind you I've not seen it since I saw it in the theater and many of the details have been forgotten (except the Halle Berry scene...that I remember vividly...go figure), but I seem to have a vague recollection of enjoying it. Not a ringing endorsement to be sure, but it didn't scar me or anything.

Vexer...I'll see you this weekend (if only in spirit) for The Expendables (fuck yeah!)

Amy Heckerling. After "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," she should've changed her name to HACKerling.

I think Shade already mentioned this one on the first page. I have to say I agree. I love Boyz n the Hood even if the stop sign at the beginning is the most heavy handed intro of all time. The film did spawn about a million knock-offs, and it is undeniably important. Singleton hasn't come anywhere close to the movie. He had the potential to become as important to black filmmakers as Spike Lee. Instead, more people know who Tyler Perry is these days. That's a shame.

Huzzah

John Singleton, in my mind, has yet to make a good feature. Boyz in the Hood was too melodramatic and obviously scripted -- the aims of the film are noble but the movie wasn't particularly good. Menace II Society remains, in that sub-genre, the only film to make its point while maintaining the actual structure of a good movie.

I guess no one else here finds "Fast Times" episodic and fairly forgettable.



Hmmm I think of Boyz n the Hood as the more polished and ultimately better version of Menace II Society. I can see how my "polished" is your "scripted," but I liked it.

Yeah you bet I do! I'll also freely admit to liking 2 Fast 2 Furious, and I also found Higher Learning alot more compelling then James did, i'm also excited aobut his new film-Abduction

Haven't seen Menace, but you're on the dot about Boyz. If mediocre ever descripted a movie perfectly, that movie would be Boyz in the Hood.



Funny, It seems your "polished" is my "boring". We seem to have very different dispositions when it comes to films, Herr Kunz. I guess we both already knew that though, didn't we.



You're right, but it is enjoyable while you're watching it, and that's worth something on the movie marketplace these days.

ONE: I hated Fast Times at Ridgemont High save for the obvious Sean Penn ha ha chuckle chuckle. It does have a small point of social interest, however: the mall in the movie is a great example of the early 1980s mall. Yes. Dawn of the Dead had that same mallnessivitity and that was actually a great movie.

Heckerling made Clueless which wasn't bad at all and was a big hit. Look Who's Talking and the rest were HUGE movies so she's no one-hit wonder.

Boyz In The Hood was polished and melodramatic. It's easy to understand why someone would call it great but I'm not with that party. Menace was choppy, congruent with the script's aim. They're both imperfect.

I mentioned him elsewhere. But here's one. Matty Rich. After Straight Out Of Brooklyn he was touted among a new wave of cinema. But what did he do? He took on his first studio film The Inkwell and it bombed. The failure of that apparently led him to more or less give up, simply leave the business altogether.

Theodore Witcher, who made one of the best love stories ever (Love Jones) is another one. Love Jones was in fact the only movie he directed. He also scripted one that went straight to video. I later came across a discussion on the IMDB boards where people were wondering what had happened to him. He then posted himself, explaining he had basically left the business and that he might come back at some point. At first I thought it was someone thinking they were being funny. Then I saw him post responses to several questions regarding the way Love Jones was shot and his answers could only have come from someone who was there. So maybe it was someone who worked with him. Either way, I would have liked to have seen more from him.

Someone mentioned Charles Laughton already. But Night Of The hUnter is a classic.

Now for ones who made one good movie.

I already mentioned Justin Lin.

I agree to an extent about John Singleton. Boyz N The Hood, while it may have become somewhat overrated, is still a great movie. Higher Learning was also a good movie and I suspect that a lot of that film ended up on the cutting room floor. Poetic Justice wasn't the disaster a lot of people made it out to be. Also don't forget Baby Boy and Rosewood. Those were good to great (especially Rosewood. That's one of the more underrated films to come out of the 1990s. I liked it way better than I did the well known Amistad.)

The main problem is that Singleton went from making films that truly seemed to matter to him (and the audience) to being a director for hire. While I did like Four Brothers, it felt like (to quote Roger Ebert) an accomplished pianist playing chopsticks.

The Hughes Brothers are somewhat different. True it can be argued that nothing they've made since Menace II Society has the same impact as that film. But Dead Presidents was a very good film. It may have been over ambitious for them at the time. But like I said before, it's better when their reach exceeds their grasp rather than not to try at all. From Hell is quite an underrated horror film. The main problem with it was that the ending felt kind of inconclusive. The Book of Eli was kind of in-between. But overall I find myself admiring the Hughes Brothers more than Singleton for sticking to their guns and not stooping to making a 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Amy Heckerling. To me Fast Times is among the best high school films ever made; the only one I'd put ahead of it would be Dazed and Confused. In terms of good movies, she also made I Could Never Be Your Woman (which went straight to video) and Clueless, which wasn't a classic. But had a lot of heart and some quotable dialogue. Yes, I agree that Fast Times is her best. However, many people tend to forget that she directed it. In fact, I've seen it erroneously described as a Cameron Crowe film on some sites. Crowe wrote the screenplay, he didn't direct that one himself. I also saw someone observe how Crowe went on to make Almost Famous, Say Anything, Singles and Jerry Maguire while Heckerling went on to make "a lot of pap". I figured they were referring to the Look Who's Talking films. But Heckerling has made some good films since 1982.

Brings to mind a few non-professional actors who turned in good performances

Tony Saragusa in the 25th Hour
Much of the cast of United 93, particularly the central guy

In terms of professionals:
Sally Dennis. Incredible in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, career quickly faded.

Gilles Mimouni.
L'Appartement was his first and it was a fabulous film, convoluted, dreamy thriller with Cassel, Bellucci and Bohringer Jr in it. There was NOTHING before or after, although he is listed as an executive producer for a crappy American remake called Wicker Park. Something's wrong.
Found a good article:
http://onedeadfish.blogspot.com/2008/11 ... mouni.html

Sam J. Jones - Flash Gordon.

How about Michael Cimino? I guess I don't need to add anything, but I add just a few notes. I absolutely love The Deer Hunter, even though it has its problems (pacing, editing, heavy-handed symbolism) I think it's an all time classic. I know I should be punished for this, but I haven't seen "Heaven's Gate" yet (will do ASAP), but of course I read a lot about it. Year of the Dragon did nothing for me and I didn't even bother to see flicks like The Sicilian. Am I buying too much into badmouthing perhaps?
As a writer: well I kind of like "Silent Running" - emphasize on "kind of".

I'll throw in another name. Jonathan Demme. He might be a two hit wonder as a director (Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia - which I find both excellent). What other significant/good movie did he direct before or after?

Stop Making Sense, the best concert film ever made.

He has kind of dropped off in recent years though. I liked his Neil Young concert film and Rachel Getting Married, but that remake of The Manchurian Candidate can go to hell.

Stop Making Sense is an amazing film. It transcends the concert film label. Pretentious as this sounds, it's a work of art.
Rachel Getting Married is strikingly good.

Coupled to the two you mention, and the fact that a lot of people like his other work, and I think view would call him a one-hit wonder.

O.K. Jonathan Demme is out of the list of one hit wonders. Thanks for pointing out the other great flicks he made as a director.

That leaves Michael Cimino, doesn't it?